The public is invited to participate in the annual juvenile white sturgeon release on Thursday, April 26, 2018, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., at the Old Ferry Landing, near Creston.

This event, co-ordinated by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, is one of several initiatives to promote the recovery of the Kootenay white sturgeon population. Each participant will have the opportunity to release a 10-month-old hatchery juvenile white sturgeon into Kootenay River.

Kootenay white sturgeon is considered endangered in both Canada and the United States. Approximately 1,000 wild adults remain in the Kootenay River and Lake system. A variety of human impacts over the past four decades have prevented the majority of their eggs and larvae from surviving. Over 250,000 hatchery juveniles have been released since 1993, with an estimated 12,000 surviving in the lake and river. The goal is to increase the adult population to 8,000 individuals, which will take at least another 15 years of hatchery assistance.

Since the 1970s, Canadian and American biologists, together with the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, Idaho Fish and Game, Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have been collaborating to maintain sturgeon numbers and genetic diversity.

Major initiatives taken by this team include:

• monitoring the sturgeon population numbers and movements;
• hatchery-reared supplementation;
• collaboration with Libby Dam operators to minimize dam effects; and
• working with local landowners to rehabilitate shoreline and in-river habitat.

Learn More:

A recently made documentary on the Kootenay white sturgeon titled “Fish Between the Falls” is available at the Nelson, Creston or Cranbrook public libraries, and can be viewed online: http://watch/montanapbs.org/video/2365454887/